Archives

  • Faith heroes: Angela Burdett-Coutts, a powerful example of Christian giving

    Baroness Angela Burdett-Coutts was a woman who was a household name in Victorian Britain and remains a powerful example of Christian giving. Angela was born in 1814 into the Burdett family of high social status and considerable wealth, and was well-educated by tutors. Spiritually, she grew up in the Church of England and became committed […]

  • Faith heroes: Rosa Parks, the quiet protester who ended racial segregation

    Some of my heroes are known for a lifetime of activity but some, like Rosa Parks, the woman whose quiet protest ended racial segregation in the United States, are known for what they did in a moment. Rosa was born in Alabama in 1913 into an African-American community. When her parents separated she moved with […]

  • Faith heroes: Hannah More’s campaign against slavery

    Hannah More was born in 1745 near Bristol, the fourth of five daughters of a schoolmaster. At a time when only upper-class women had a formal education, her father ensured she and her sisters were well taught. She studied at her father’s school for girls and, while still a teenager, taught there. Hannah wrote her […]

  • Faith heroes: Fanny Crosby, writer of more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs

    Fanny Crosby was a prolific hymnist, writing more than 8,000 hymns and gospel songs, and the most remarkable thing about her was that she did so in spite of her blindness. Born in 1820 in rural south-east New York, Fanny lost her sight to an eye infection and medical ignorance at the age of six […]

  • Faith heroes: Amanda Smita, from a black slave to the first international woman evangelist

    The life of Amanda Smith was extraordinary: she traveled from being a black slave to becoming the first international woman evangelist. Amanda was born in 1837 in the American state of Maryland, the first of 13 children. Her parents were slaves and she became one too. Despite the poverty of her upbringing Amanda grew up […]

  • Faith heroes: Harriet Beecher Stowe, the most important woman in the US in 19th century

    In the nineteenth century Harriet Beecher Stowe was the most important woman in the United States. It is reported that during the American Civil War, when she was introduced to President Lincoln he said, ‘So this is the little woman who gave us this great war.’ Harriet was born in New England into the Beecher […]

  • Christian Woman hero of the faith: Elisabeth Elliot

    Elisabeth Elliot was born in 1926 in Brussels to missionary parents who soon relocated to the USA. There, at an early age, she made a personal profession of faith to follow Christ. Elisabeth soon felt God’s call to be a missionary. In 1944, with the intention of becoming a Bible translator, she enrolled at Wheaton […]

  • We’re All Children of God Through Faith

    “For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus”—Galatians 3:26 (NLT). It involved moonshine and murder. Sounds like a great book title, doesn’t it? The true story behind this crime is part of my family history. It was in the early 1900s when one of my father’s uncles—my great uncle—received the death […]

  • A perfectionist learns to rest in Jesus

    “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest”— Matthew 11:28 (NIV). Confession time. I’m a recovering perfectionist addict. Rest doesn’t always come easy for me. In a recent national advice column, a woman wrote in about her “drive to be productive, to take action, to keep things […]